? >> the president obama looks nothing like the candidate obama. he talked about lowering the deficit in half, not redistributing wealth. and not, as he said, hurting the taxpayer and getting rid of broad and things like that. i think these economists look at numbers and they see reality, they feature $6 trillion in debt. and they figure it is time to move on. neil: having said that, they seem to have crunched the numbers and looked on the weakness of this recovery and concluded maybe a fresh start is in order. but doesn't factor in a smart money angle that we are missing? smart money seems to be saying that there is not much money for this recovery to be had. >> will look at their records. we have president obama who hasn't had any experience in the private sector and we have governor romney who does understand. america, yes, we do need a ceo in chief. we also need someone who understands that the business leadership to be able to broker and work in washington where there is a lot of polarized politics. governor romney is adjusting policies that democrats and republicans can agree. w

polling for government romney. who would better handle the deficit? romney went up 16%. who would handle the economy? romney gained 12 points over president obama. taxes, romney was ahead by nine points. health care, romney was ahead by five points. i would mention, the sampling error is almost five points there. but still, in virtually every single question, it was the governor romney who, among people who saw the debate, they felt that he was now ahead in the polls that followed. what do you make of those very devastating numbers for the president? >> i think that governor romney is certainly a skilled debater. and last night he was able to elevate his level of performance. but he did not change the fundamental dynamics of this race, nor did he change some of the policies that actually got us into the economic mess that we have. he embraced the president and agreed that, in fact, he does want to turn medicare into a voucher program, and he still skated and danced and tap danced around how it is that he's going to cut tax for millionaires and billionaires without that having an impact o

avoid raising the deficit or burdening the middle class. >> there will be no tax cut that adds to the deficit. >> i will take ideas from anybody, democrat or republican as long as they are advancing the cause of making middle class families stronger and giving opportunities to middle class. >> i have got five boys. i'm used to people saying something that not always true but repeating it hoping i will believe it. i will not reduce the taxes paid by high income americans. >> we do better when the middle class is doing well. by giving them those tax cuts they have more money in their pocket so maybe they can buy a new car. >> under the president's tax policies middle americans have been buried. they have been crushed. martha: joe biden had a bit of a gaffe using that same line and mitt romney put it back at him last night. candidates will barely have time to catch their breath. they get back on the campaign trail today. the president will be in colorado and wisconsin. the romney camp moves along to the swing state of virginia. you have got 13 electoral votes up there. bill: we find

income individuals to avoid either raising the deficit or burden evening the middle class, it's math, it's arithmetic. jon: today it's back to the campaign trail. mr. obama in denver, and then to wisconsin. governor romney is in virginia where the most recent "real clear politics" average shows president obama leading with 47% of the vote, governor romney with 44. virginia has 13 electoral votes up for grabs. that's where john roberts is right now, live in fisher'sville, virginia. what is the event going on there today, john. >> country music star trace atkins will be joining governor romney and his running nature at 6:45 on stage. president obama won this state by six in 2008. governor romney trailing in the polls currently hoping to use his debate performance to narrow the gap. it was the first time the two candidates were on stage face-to-face, a chance for governor romney to one-on-one answer allegations that the obama campaign has been firing his way. one of them over this idea that governor romney is trying to implement a $5 trillion tax cut for the rich. he repeatedly answered

to the deficit. that's part one. number two, i will not reduce the share paid by high-income individuals. and number three, i will not under any circumstances raise taxes on middle income families. i will lower taxes on middle income families. >> he's going to get rid of the estate tax, mr. mayor, which aims directly at the top rate. the people who have a quarter million bucks and want to leave it to their kids. it's nor the very rich. he wants to lower the top rate from 35% to 28% for the richest people in the country. he wants to take the corp rate rate from 35% to 25%. >> clearly at that stage mr. obama should have turned to him and said you are not telling the american people the truth. just as he did today in denver when he said he wasn't telling the truth. he should have looked him in the eye and said mitt romney, you are not telling the american people the truth. and then proceed to walk through as clinton would have done the mathematics to prove it. i don't think romney would have been smart enough to figure out how to get out of that hit, but obama ignored that oppor

have to raise taxes on the middle class, or increase the deficit to pay for it. if we can't trust him here, how could we ever trust him here? >> roller coaster week hitting a high note for president obama. the new jobless numbers are easing the pain of his poor debate performance and bring romney's momentum to a sharp stop or it may not. joining me now, "new york times" columnist, nick kristof. let's start with the job figures today. because it's clearly good news for barack obama politically if nothing else. >> not only the numbers today but the revisions for the last two months. we seem to really be on a trajectory and you know, this is going -- apparently what really matters is not the economy for the year but the economy at the moment as people approach the election. people are beginning to vote. >> the good news for barack obama there. not so good news his performance at the debate. common consensus is a bit of a turkey. >> he blew it. >> why did he blow it? he's such a skillful orator usually. >> it's a paradox. he's a skillful communicator at his best and he was really at his w

against deficit spending but he also believed the government had a positive role to play. the interstate highway system, which eisenhower -- which was eisenhower's brainchild. [applause] more money was spent on the intraday -- interstate highway system than the new deal from 1839 to 18 to 41 with zero impact on the budget because it was paid for through gasoline taxes. [applause] thethe st. lawrence seaway connecting the great lakes, opening the great lakes to traffic again had been on the drawing board since the administration of theodore roosevelt and eisenhower -- eisenhower took, assumed the presidency in a time of mccarthyism and incredible communist witchhunt. he did it as he did so many things in the background. it was eisenhower orchestrated the army's response in the army mccarthy hearings. i'm not going to get into a contest but that stunk. and when it was over mccarthy had him vanquished but i think it was the desegregation issue perhaps in which eisenhower most often underestimated. president truman had ordered the army to be desegregated in 1950 but the that the a

consecutive day. he slammed the bush administration for the budget deficit. >> they had doubled the national debt in eight years. >> with his path to the white house shrinking, florida you is looking like a must win scenario for romney. but today paul ryan focused on new hampshire. the granite state has four electoral votes, but ryan said that could be the difference in a race that will come down to a handful of states. >> thank you, granite staters, for sending mitt romney to the white house and barack obama back to chicago. >> the campaign shifts to a different stage with wednesday night's high stakes showdown between president obama and romney. >> if you take a look at the history of debates, it is not about policy specifics. it is not really about facts. every change that happened in -- because somebody's style did badly or did well. >> both candidates will spend the next few days in intense prep sessions. trailing in the may have romney may have the most on the line. his campaign is looking at this debate as a chance for a game changer. karen travers, abc news, washington. >>>

senators are working on a plan that would put off increases in cuts while addressing the deficit. lawmakers say no action will be taken until after november. >>> mitt romney's campaign is out with a new scathing add campaign ahead of tomorrow's debate. here is more on how the ads target president barack obama on taxes. >> reporter: the mitt romney's campaign new slow began, we can't afford four more years of president barack obama. and in a new ad out today, mitt romney is accusing president barack obama of raising new taxes and planning new tax increases if he gets another term. >> liberals pay for government run healthcare, you will pay more for taxes and for your medicine. >> reporter: campaign staffers say he has lowered taxes and his claim is mostly true, both candidates are spending the day off the campaign trail practicing for tomorrow's big day. mitt romney is softening his stance on a key immigration issue and now he is saying he will honor temporary work permits, allow them to stay in the united states because of president barack obama's recent executive order. reporting live from

florida for a second consecutive day. he slammed the bush administration for the budget deficit. >> they had doubled the national debt in eight years. >> with his path to the white house shrinking, florida you is looking like a must win scenario for romney. but today paul ryan focused on new hampshire. the granite state has four electoral votes, but ryan said that could be the difference in a race that will come down to a handful of states. >> thank you, granite staters, for sending mitt romney to the white house and barack obama back to chicago. >> the campaign shifts to a different stage with wednesday night's high stakes showdown between president obama and romney. >> if you take a look at the history of debates, it is not about policy specifics. it is not really about facts. every change that happened in -- because somebody's style did badly or did well. >> both candidates will spend the next few days in intense prep sessions. trailing in the polls, romney may have the most on the line. his campaign is looking at this debate as a chance for a game changer. karen travers, abc news, wa

president's job creation efforts have only added to the deficit. >> a couple nights ago we had a debate. you may have got the chance to see that. >> reporter: before the new jobs numbers, romney had been riding a wave of momentum after this week's debate. he even got a pass from the president who never mentioned romney's comments on the 47% of americans who don't pay federal income taxes. >> there are 47% of the people who vote for the president no matter what. >> reporter: with an obama campaign ad still repeating those, romney tried to put an end to the controversy once and for all on fox. >> clearly in a campaign with hundreds and thousands of speeches and question and answer sessions, now and then you're going to say something that doesn't come out right. in this case i've said something that's completely wrong. >> reporter: romney heads next to florida where his economic message will still resonate. that state's unemployment rate while it has gone down in recent months is still well above the national average. wolf. >> jim acosta joining us, thanks very much. let's dig deepe

inability of the government to fix this borrowing debt deficit issue in the book, vice president biden's chief of staff, talking about the economic crisis in 2011, that's exactly what is going on. there is so much evidence that it is the biggest future. we are on the path becoming europe and greece. you just can't keep borrowing money. there is a stunning and fiction in this country, and we need some sort of we need some serious intervention. in the book, what i attempt to do is take people to the presidents and leaders and tell you exactly because of the luxury of time and my publisher, simon & schuster, i declined to get the meeting notes to get the exact detail to interview president obama and speaker boehner and the key players in this. i just want to take one quick snapshot from what happened that we didn't know about, which is critical. when the cops pull up less when the president was upset, he called the congressional leaders on a saturday morning at 11:00 o'clock a.m. something in democratic andemoat republican leader were trying to work outth the own deal harry reid, th

now stands. the plan to slash the deficit by gutting social programs and his party is saying he built that. in the other corner, a granddaddy of the base. 29 years old, joe biden became one of the youngest people ever elected to the u.s. senate. he's been steep in the political gospel of the democratic party for 40 years. he's played key roles in u.s. foreign policy as a member and chairman of the foreign committee. middle east, southwest asia, the united states has been there in the last four decades. joe biden has too. of course, congressman paul ryan who chairs the house budget committee also likes to tout his foreign policy chops. >> i have more foreign policy experience coming into this job than president obama did coming into his. >> can you explain how do you have more foreign policy experience than senator obama did. he was on the foreign relations committee. >> norah, i voted to send men and women to war. i've been to iraq and afghanistan. i've met with our troops to get perspectives. i've been to the funerals, i've talked to the widows, talked to the wives, the moms an

deficit and everything else in closing arguments . how good the moderator was. body language. the president would not look at mitt romney? >> steve: no. >> brian: he kept looking down . romm rom was staring at him. >> steve: he would look at jim lehrer like he is taking too much time. >> brian: i thought it was telling and you saw a guy that did one thing and i thought the b.b.c. katy k who never said anything nice about a republican. president obama has spent millions was dollars trying to show that governor romney was not worthy of being president. governor romney showed he was worthy and he is competent and all of that money was wasted to any of the 60 million who watched. >> steve: that's the beauty of seeing them side by side unfiltered and uninterrupt no commercials. in 30 second sound bites you can try to defend or define your opponent and that's what the president has done. last night, gretchen, when the president of the united states am mitt romney want to cut taxes for rich guys. mr. romney said mr. president, that is not the case. >> i know you and your running mate kee

solution to the situation we're in right now with the economy? how are they going to solve the deficit problem and also increase job creation?" and i'd like to hear that explained clearly, because they have two very different philosophies. third, i think that if the debates do their job, we're going to be able to answer the question, "what are the sacrifices either one is going to ask us to make?" >> such as reforming social security, medicare, higher taxes, lower taxes? >> yes. and on the table are all sorts of things that many people value a great deal and we may not be able to afford anymore. so should we have deductibility for second home mortgages? should we have deductibility for high-cost homes? should we have health insurance coverage provided by employers continue to be deductible? if so, for whom, should it be for all? and should we raise the age of entitlement, if so, to what level?" when someone says that about social programs, i want to also hear the answer to the question, "what are you doing with military spending? and how do you justify the tradeoff? we've gotta get the

grocery store, the level of debt and deficit this country is facing, it's clear that we have a lot of problems in this country that the president has just not addressed, and i think that's why we saw his debate performance the way that it was a couple of nights ago. he has a really, really hard time defending his record, defending the last four years and that's why we saw such a difference between him and governor romney on the stage last wednesday in denver. >> kirsten, thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thank you. >>> a 12-year-old boy is attacked on a school bus but didn't tell his mother. we'll tell you how she found out. >>> it's one of the most recognizable guitar riffs ever recorded. the theme to "james bond." ever wonder how much the guy who played it made? we'll tell you next. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you make 70,000 trades a second... ♪ reach one customer at a time? ♪ or help doctors turn billions of bytes of shared information... ♪ into a fifth anniversary of remission? ♪ whatever your business challenge, dell has the technology and services to help you sol

was driving the federal deficit. but that's what we heard last night. >> jamal: to the president is getting in mitt romney's face. and we have somebody on the line joining us who can talk about what is happening in the campaign what hand at the debate, and how the president is coming from what most people think was not his best performance. this is reid wilson. tell us what do you think about the debate and how is the last sort of 24 hours have gone? >> it's so funny to see the guy on the trail yesterday in president obama and wonder where he was on wednesday night during the debate. this is a candidate who always has been so fired up and he speaks so well, and yet where was he wednesday. and on the other side of the stage, who was that guy after several lackluster debates, mitt romney does not present alterably well, and yet he showed up. that really surprised me. i mean it seemed like the two candidates sort of reversed roles for a night, and it ended up hurting president obama there significantly. i think was an opportunity for obama to sort of shut the door on romney. we have ha

financially if ha wait a minute we just every year for decades had a 10, $50 billion deficit because we just spent too much money. >> steve: as big as the deficit is in california, it doesn't even approach what we're heading toward here in the united states of america. >> that is really tough because when you talk about $16 trillion, i mean, this is the last few years come from ten to $16 trillion. that is troubling. then on top of it, you have the deficit, which is like a trillion and a half every year. i mean, we are talking about a lot of money, and on top of it, this country doesn't have a budget for three years, we've been waiting for a budget. there is no budget. how do you operate that way? >> brian: that's a failure for the president, don't you agree? >> everyone in washington it's a failure. if congress cannot get their act together and look at this, if you can not get immigration reform done which they have been talking about ever since i've gotten into office, they've talked about immigration reformment nothing gets done. every year they say, next year is an election coming up. he

deficit that includes revenues and cuts in spending. can you name one program you've eliminated while you've been in congress? >> yes the s 22. i voted this is something the pentagon did not want but there were those advocating for it. i voted against the s22 which was cut by the way. i voted on a different alternative fighter engine that was not necessary as well and that was cut. and those are examples of programs that were cut. but whey don't want to do is what my opponent says he embraces the ryan budget. what does the ryan budget do? it ends medicare, makes it a voucher. dramatically cuts assisttons education in our country. as someone who grew up poor, the first of my family to go to college, i want pell grants to be out there and keeping student interest loan low so every child can achieve an education. it is important to do this tpwh a balance way for middle class interest. >> when i'm there we're going to have a budget that i will work on and advocate for and compromise along the way without sacrificing principle with my colleagues. you talk about congressman ryan, it's more

a 14-month high. minors slumped following a short rise in the trait deficit. india now higher by .2%. >> up next, uk drinks maker have been given an extinction to survive. that's up next. >>> and now for a fluffy news story. we don't always get to do this. looking at pictures of cute animals may actually increase workers' concentration and productivity. that's according to researchers at the university of hiroshima. does your cute puppy or cat increase your productivity? if you want to join the conversation, get in touch with us by e-mail, via twitter, and i'm also on twitter as well. >>> the french president is facing some pest problems. a small group of entrepreneurs are making headlines in france with the protest against a jump in capital gains tax, calling themselves the pigeons, that's french surveillance for the fall guys. their viral campaign has attracted thousands of followers on facebook and twitter. let's get out to stephane in paris who's been following the pigeons. always sounds more attractive in french. holland is facing no shortage against the tax rises. >> they are